DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum What's going broke next? The highway fund!

Administration: Highway fund to go broke in August
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is warning lawmakers that the trust fund that pays for highway construction will go broke in August unless Congress approves an infusion of as much as $7 billion.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said at a hearing the administration has told senators the Federal Highway Trust Fund will need an estimated $5 billion to $7 billion to keep current construction projects going.
The California Democrat said another $8 billion to $10 billion will be needed to keep the fund solvent through the year ending Sept. 30, 2010.
Transportation Department spokeswoman Jill Zuckman confirmed those figures.
"The administration is working closely with Congress to solve this difficult problem and ensure that states have the resources they need to maintain our roads and highways," Zuckman said.
A decline in driving that began in late 2007 has reduced federal gas tax revenue, the primary source of trust fund dollars.
The trust fund is separate from the $48 billion in transportation projects included in the economic recovery law enacted by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama earlier this year.
Congress approved an emergency transfer of $8 billion in general treasury dollars last fall to make up a projected shortfall — the first time in the history of the program that had happened. The fund dates back to creation of the federal interstate highway program in 1956.
Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said it's clear that Congress must raise the federal gas tax, which is now 18.4 cents per gallon.
"I know that doesn't go down so well with some folks," but it's "the reality of the situation," Voinovich said at the hearing, which was on Obama's nomination of former Arizona highways director Victor Mendez to head the Federal Highway Administration.
"That will be one of my highest priorities, to get on that very quickly," Mendez said of the trust fund.
The law that authorizes federal highway programs is due to expire at the end of September, but the issue hasn't been on Congress' frontburner. There is a consensus among transportation experts and lawmakers that there will have to be some form of a tax increase — always unpopular, but especially so in a recession — to make up for the lower gas tax revenues and to address a backlog of crumbling and congested highways, bridges and public transit systems.
Two congressionally mandated commissions have called for an immediate increase in the gas tax. The first commission, which issued its report in early 2008, recommended a 40-cent per gallon hike. The second panel, which issued its report earlier this year, recommended the tax be increased 10 cents per gallon for gas and 15 cents per gallon for diesel, and that both be indexed to inflation.
The two panels also said fuel taxes are not a sustainable source of revenue over the long term as drivers shift to more fuel efficient vehicles. Both panels recommended Congress find a new revenue source to pay for highway and transit programs.
Their top recommendation was to tax motorists based on how many miles they drive. That would require equipping cars and trucks with devices that use GPS technology to record not only how many miles the vehicle was driven, but whether the driving took place on interstate highways or secondary roads and whether it was during peak travel periods. The device would calculate the amount of tax owed and the bill could be downloaded.
A mileage-based tax system would take about 10 years to implement.

WTF!

Seriously, come on now. How about this government take a pay cut, or this government look at other social programs that are inept to pay for the highways. Or better yet, each state start putting tolls up to pay for construction. Increasing and creating yet another tax is not the answer. GPS on my car to monitor how many miles I drive? BS! What happens when there is a malfunction and someone is over billed for their actual mileage?

This whole thing gets a

Doesn't the gov't know we the taxpayers are broke?

Does the gov't. insist on raising taxes on everything?

Hold on to your hats, folks, or the gov't. will take those as well. Just wait till all the cities have to re-do their sewer lines.......I believe it is Ft. Wayne, IN that just notified their water customers that rates will double in the next 3 years or so.

Gov't. from the local level, to county, to state, to federal - they all want more money. And meanwhile, the pool of payers shrinks. So they ratchet up the taxes even more.

It's out of hand. Gov't. needs to cut 10% a year for the next 5 years.

Mileage driven taxes would kill me.

I drive about 45k miles per year on the low end. Since most of it is for business I would hope I could deduct the tax through itemization, but who knows.

Wasn't some of the 787 billion for highway construction and improvements?

I can no longer AFFORD a hat that's worth holding on to.

Just wait until the $0.50 per flush tax hits... Then we'll all be LITERALLY flushing money down the crapper.

Change we can believe in?

I had liberals shoving in my face how Obama gave us a tax cut on our pay checks. Yup, and where is that money going? More taxes on other things.

Revolution.

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Wasn't some of the 787 billion for highway construction and improvements?

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Sure was. Obama harping on the broken infrastructure. He even praised China at one point during the Olympics, saying what a great job they were doing on their infrastructure. Much of it will be spent on assinine studies on impact to some rodent or insect. Then they will have a couple projects being done around the next elections and the in the bag media will hype them for political use by his party.

When will people wise up and realize that the guy is a liar. He says one thing and does another. They gave all that money to GM and Chrysler knowing full well that they would still go bankrupt. It was clear payoff to the union bosses that got him elected. It was all part of his plan to nationalize anything he can get his hands on.

Now GM will make cars nobody wants. Watch gas prices, I'll bet they retun to over $4 a gallon. They will make sure that they can create a reason to force people to do what they feel is right. Can't waste a crisis.

I read a story the other day about dealerships closing by force. The funny thing was how they were chosen. It didn't come right out and say it, but it implied that many that were closed were owned by people or groups that backed the Republican party. They will use this same tactic on radio stations and newspapers. Congress at this very moment is in the process of forcing "local" programming (not sure if that's the right term). This is a back handed way of determining who gets a license. Some are even calling for making newspapers "non-profits". This is a way to control the media.

I don't need anybody...coughPhilcough...trying to convince me that I'm wrong about these political manipulations, I see and read enough to know what's happening. Totalitarian, communist, even facist, call him what you want, he fits all the molds.

What this no good marxist is doing to this country is a shame. And the youth and lemmings that fall for his BS are the blame. Everything he wants is done using doom and gloom tactics.

A revolution? We should be so lucky.

Once we were a nation of doers. We were a nation based on accomplishment and hard work. I'm not saying that there weren't idle rich .... but this country created a lot of self made millionaires along the way, and had people who worked 70+ hours per week to acheive their American Dream.

Now we are a nation of complainers and "Gimme NOW!!!!" We are a nation with a large percentage of the population wants at the expense of others .... rather than by the sweat of their own brows. We are a nation set at odds between those who produce, and those who do not ... and frankly do not, and will not, even make an effort to do so.

It would seem that a war between the 2 sides would be rather short and 1 sided ..... because most of the unproductive leaches wouldn't even bother to fight on their own behalf .... they would wait for someone else to do so for them.

I've been game for revolution since we twice elected a man whose intelligence barely hovers above mentally retarded.

Won't happen, though. Too many distractions and luxuries. People don't revolt unless their backs are against the wall...and as longs as we have malls and T.V. and such...our backs are comfortably cushioned.

We survived 8 years of Bush's disastrous regime. I imagine we'll survive 8 years of Obama's.

Hopefully one day the people revolt against this government. However, I don't think they have the intelligence to do so...it's going to get a lot worse before anyone lifts a finger.

I think your wrong...the heart and soul of this country is threatened.

We are going to see a lot of unprecedented things over the next 2 years.

It isn't going to take 8...

I agree Peenie .. this country is crashing .. and its crashing hard .. it is not going to be no wheres near 8 years before something HAS TO BE DONE ...

these guys are spending money at an astronimical pace .. it boggles my mind .. everytime IO turn around theres aother 10 billion being thrown around like a quarter ..

and someone else mentioned it .. CHINA is getting scared .. Geithner is over there cause they want to be ASSURED that there MONEY IS SECURE ... there GETTING NERVOUS ..

and the news just keeps getting worse .. the car industry is going to REALLY DRAG THIS ECONOMY DOWN EVEN ANOTHER NOTCH ..

and the unemployment scrolls willl go up .. the TAX REVENUE will go down ..

at some point .. and its not to far way .. this is going to COME CRASHING DOWN on the bozos that run our country and there is nothing that can be done about it ..

our goverment is leveraged up to its neck .. and this is before nationalized HC .. and he needs how many trillion for that ..

how much more can we be taxed .. for real??? ..

I'm with U man .. its not that far away ..

The gas tax was raised to 18.4 cents/gallon in 1994.

I don't know of any construction project that could be bought at 1994 prices.

It does not suprize me.

j/c weren't they building this 537 lane wide nafta highway to make it easy for mexican illegals to migrate straight to canada instead of stopping in the u.s. ? so is that off the plate now. or maybe it was just an acid dream of mine. or does that thing really exist.

On the time value of money.

The tax should be 26.8 cents today to equal the same 18.4 cent tax of 1994.

or 18.4 cents that we pay today would be equal to 12.6 cents in 1994 dollars.

That calculation is taken straight from the CPI tables from 1994 and 2008.

CPI of 1994 = 148, CPI of 2008 = 215.

It should be reflected in your income.

There is no way that I would trade my 1994 income for 2008.